When I saw that the death pronounced on the first Adam was really prophetic of the last Adam’s death, it changed my take on this. By His death, we are all relieved of our ‘old man’ and are a new creation. The old has passed away and all things have become new. We have His life in us. Paul said that he was dead, yet he lived.

Paul also said that we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God. This makes sense to me now. Because of the death Jesus died, all that old stuff we worry about, and call sin, does not count any more. We “died” with Him. We are raised with Him in new life. His life is in us. We don’t have to figure out how. It just is. And that is what will raise us bodily one day.

So, when Paul says to “put off the old man”, what is he saying? Is it something we can actually do? No.

Paul is saying to realize we are new – to quit thinking the old way. It’s an exhortation. We are new, through what Christ did. The sense in the original text is that it has been done and they (the Ephesians) had been taught this, and they were to realize it and act like it. We are new creations. Notify your mind and actions. Let grace teach you, not rules and laws. We have new life.

We do not “die daily”. We do not decrease so that He can increase. We do not put off the old man. It is already done. Jesus did it. When we see this, we walk in newness and freedom. It is joy unspeakable. All we have to do is be ourselves, except that we need to stop being our own worst enemy. God loves us to be us. We used to say, “Let go and let God.” We should do it.

He has done it all, given it all to us, and lives this life with us, in us. It’s a wonderful dance.

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In this season of Christmas and Hanukkah, interest in the Jewish feasts is heightened. I hear it all around in my church. All Christians generally agree that Jesus fulfilled the first four of the seven Jewish feasts. But rarely does anyone teach that He fulfilled all the feasts. Well, He said it was finished, and it was. If we see that He more or less ended the appointed days with Pentecost, it may help. Still, it may not be chronological at all. They are only types and shadows of the true substance, which is Jesus.

I offer excerpts from three different sources, which show how one of each three “remaining” feasts is fulfilled.

Trumpets:

The Fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets

I believe that the truest fulfillment of this festival is Jesus’ offer of the New Covenant to all who would receive it.

“‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you'” (Luke 22:20b).

We who have accepted the New Covenant remember this fact every time we take communion. The bread and the cup remind us of the cataclysmic events of the Lord’s death and resurrection. They remind us of our responsibilities in being New Covenant-people. We repent and show remorse for our sin in falling short of this high and holy calling. Through faith in the shed blood of Jesus, we receive the full and final atonement provided by the New Covenant.

Yom Kippur [Heb. = day of atonement], in Judaism, the most sacred holy day, falling on the 10th day of the Jewish month of Tishri (usually late September or early October). It is a day of fasting and prayer for forgiveness for sins committed during the year. Jews gather in synagogues on the Eve of Yom Kippur, when the fast begins, and return the following morning to continue confessing, doing penance, and praying for forgiveness. The most solemn of the prayers, Kol Nidre, is chanted on the Eve of Yom Kippur. Biblical origins are found in Leviticus, where the priestly ritual of atonement is described.

“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” (John 7:37-38). Presumably Jesus had been sitting as he taught. Here he stands and in a loud voice declares that he is the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles.

On the final day he declared that it was fulfilled. No longer would the streams of water need to flow from the altar and down from the temple. Jesus was the sacrifice and as he said in John 2, he was the temple. He was the one who would be on the altar of the cross and have blood and water flow from his side and run down the hill to bring new life. Jesus brings a whole new meaning to their understanding of the Feast. Those who believe in Jesus will be sustained by the power of God and his Holy Spirit. It was not really about the Dead Sea or physical streams of water or the valleys growing crops. This harvest would come from the inside out. As with the Samaritans in John 4 this harvest would be a harvest of people for God’s kingdom.

I submit that if Jesus fulfilled the feast of tabernacles, He of necessity fulfilled all. The Feast of Tabernacles comes at the end of the last three feasts….! One thing that bothers me the most about the idea of future fulfillment for some prophecy, and parts of the Mosaic system, is that it disregards the finished work of Jesus. I often wonder what He must think of our blindness. We should be looking first to see if there already has been fulfillment, not believing the dispensationalists and pushing so much into the speculative future. Okay, now I feel better….